Revenge of the downtrodden
by Jazzerman
Summary: Dark digimon and their tamers get no respect. Joel and his partner Devimon just want to be left alone but when Joel and TK meet and an argument turns to violence Joel meets other tamers who think it's time they all got some respect. Set after season 2.
1. Different

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Revenge of the downtrodden

Chapter 1

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Joel laid back on the grass, he and his partner were relaxing in a field not far from a digital gate. He had come here to relax and get as far away from other humans as he could. While many children in the world had Digimon now he was the only one partnered with a Demidevimon. Other Digidestined would shun him or awkwardly stare as he would walk with the bat like Digimon perched on his shoulder or on top of his red head. Some believed that he made a deal with a powerful evil Digimon like Daemon for such a partner or was being controlled for some evil design. Joel had given up trying to convince other people that he was a good tamer and had taken to being alone most of the time. He didn't mind being alone as long as he had his partner and no one tried to bully either him or his Digimon.

"So Joel are we going to do today?" Demidevimon asked, getting a little tired of being idle for so long. "My wings are starting to fall asleep."

"I don't know... I'm thinking of heading towards that forest over there." Joel pointed to the forest to the north, he wasn't really interested in going there, he only wanted something to occupy his own mind and give his partner something to stop complaining about. "I doubt we'll run into any one there."

"Heh, speak for yourself." Demidevimon said. "I'd like to see some more of those Digidestined who get scared when they see me in my Champion form and run away leaving their food."

It had happened before, a few too many really. In his Champion form of Devimon Joel's partner had terrified any Digidestined that had a partner unable to digivolve past Champion level simply ran away, often leaving their supplies. The rare few that could go past Champion to Ultimate or just fought back and proved equal to Devimon forced both Joel and Devimon to flee. Since Joel could never catch up to any who ran from them to offer them their supplies, both he and his partner would divide the food and would often find stronger Digimon who claimed to be hunting a Devimon bandit who preyed on weak Digidestined.

Joel and Devimon didn't actively prey on human-Digimon teams, it would just be a shame to let all that food and supplies go to waste by being eaten by wild Digimon. It made sense to Joel, if they were moronic enough to run from Devimon at first glance and pay no attention to the human standing nearby then he didn't care enough about their needs. Those other partners could get more supplies if they needed it, after all the set back might make those Digidestined and their Digimon more determined and stronger.

Joel walked into the woods with Demidevimon on his shoulder, stretching his wings before taking flight flying just over his partner's head. The woods were much like the ones Joel had camped in when he was younger with friends but after all the time spent in the Digital World he knew there were worse things that lived in here than bears and raccoons.

"Hey Joel, we got something big comin our way..." Demidevimon said, defensively flying in front of Joel to put himself between his human partner and the incoming danger.

Out of the trees came a large insect Digimon resembling a red bipedal stag beetle. Joel had heard about this Digimon before, it was an unintelligent terror for new Digidestined that was called Kuwagamon. Without even needing to announce it, energy traveled from Joel's digivice and the small 'bowling ball with wings' to a large humanoid demon wearing black leather from head to toe, two horns on his head, and two large ragged bat wings on his back. Grinning a fanged grin, Devimon cracked his knuckles as he prepared for battle.

Kuwagamon snipped his pinchers together, charging at the newly evolved fallen angel only to receive a Death Claw attack to the center of it's armored head. The attack did not destroy the razor toothed beetle but it did knock it back into the bushes. Not waiting for another attack, Devimon leapt after it to deliver a finishing blow.

Joel decided to wait to see if Devimon called for him, he had found it better to wait when it came to running blindly into dense foliage. He could be stepped on or otherwise flattened by Kuwagamon or Devimon. However instead of a death cry from Kuwagamon he heard some screaming, the kind kids his age made when they were terrified. Joel sighed, time to see another group of people scream at seeing a dark Digimon.

Past the dense bushes he saw a small group of Digimon and their partners and Kuwagamon taking flight above the trees headed away from the group.

"You okay D?" Joel asked, looking up at the large demonic Digimon standing next to him.

Devimon shrugged at the mention of his nickname, somewhat annoyed that his foe had taken flight instead of staying and fighting him. Kuwagamon was weak, it had obviously seen better days. Devimon guessed that it had been fighting someone else before encountering him and Joel.

There on the other side of the foliage staring at his partner with a mixture of surprise and gritted anger were four kids about his age, three boys and a girl. The youngest of the boys had sandy colored hair that was nearly hidden under his bucket hat, wore a yellow and blue shirt, grey shorts, and odd teal shoes. His partner was obviously the orange furred Patamon that was sitting on his head, a Rookie, no threat unless it could digivolve.

The two older boys both wore green school uniforms, but that was where similarities ended. One had spiky blond hair and a cold stare, the other had a massive hairdo that resembled a bird's nest. At their sides were an Agumon and a Gabumon. Both rookies, again no real danger.

The girl had short brown hair and was wearing a white and pink shirt, yellow shorts, pink fingerless gloves, and what looked like a large locket around her neck. At her side was a Gatomon, a Champion level Digimon. That alone was worry enough for Joel, if they wanted to fight and that Gatomon could go to the next level Joel and Devimon could be facing an Ultimate and three Champions... not good odds.

From the other teenager's perspective they saw a young man of heavy Irish decent with short messy red hair and blue eyes, wearing a gray T shirt with blue jeans. Very nondescript clothing that looked like it had been worn and abused over the years as evident of the unreadable remains of green lettering that was left of his shirt. On his shoulder was a black duffel bag, what it was filled with none of them was sure of.

"Hey are you the ones attacking people and stealing their supplies?" The kid in the bucket hat exclaimed, a little too threatening for Joel's taste.

Joel scoffed and scratched the back of his head, gritting his teeth as he began to explain to another hostile punk who wanted to fight just because they had heard exaggerated rumors.

"We never attack anyone who doesn't want to fight, and it's not our fault that people scream and run away when they see D here..." Joel said, motioning towards Devimon who had held his long arms over his chest. "It's not our fault most of them drop their supplies and take off before I can explain a single thing."

Joel noticed the kid with the bucket hat was glaring at Devimon, not normal 'you did something wrong' glaring this was an 'I hate you and I want you to die' kinda look. The other boys seemed a little unnerved but that was better than all four of them wigging out and attacking full force in a panicked first strike. Surprisingly the girl seemed the most neutral as she simply shifted her attention to Joel to Devimon and back with a look that could equally be considered either confusion or curiosity.

"So... You're saying your partner is Devimon?" The older kid with blond hair said with a distinct air of skepticism.

"Give hot shot over there a prize." Joel exclaimed, causing his partner to chuckle and resulting in the bucket hat kid to grimace. "Actually this is just his digivolved form, normally he's a Demidevimon. He's been able to go to Champion form since day one."

The girl noted her bucket hated friends' expression and sighed. "You'll have to forgive T.K. He has never liked Devimon, it's nothing personal."

"Well sorry, I have a Devimon as a partner, there's not much I can do about that. I can still leave though." Joel snorted as he turned around to head back into the foliage and away from these irritating people. "Let's go D."

"Hey what's your problem?" 'T.K.' shouted at the red haired kid, clearly annoyed by his words.

"T.K. don't bite off more than you can chew." The nest haired kid warned, the other young man in the green school uniform only nodded in agreement.

"I don't like people dissing my partner." Joel said over his shoulder. "And if you're thinking of taking us on I'd suggest you just calm down and let us be."

"Oh yeah? Then why did you jump out at us?" TK snorted, crossing his arms.

"Jump you?" Joel's right eye was beginning to twitch, if this kept up then he'd be getting into a fist fight. "D, we're getting out of here. When I got up I wasn't expecting a Spanish inquisition."

"Calm down TK, you're starting to act like Davis." Kari said, she was starting to regret her suggestion on traveling through these woods.

TK's face turned red, he already wasn't in a very good mood and being compared to a hot head like Davis didn't help. In an act of blind and thoughtless anger TK plucked a rock from the ground and threw it, striking Joel in the back of the head.

TK expected that attacking Devimon's partner would leave him feeling satisfied, but the result was the exact opposite. The sight of Joel going limp and crumpling to the ground filled the Digidestined of hope with an instant feeling of dread when he realized that he could've seriously injured another human being.

While TK had calmed down, Devimon had rushed over to his partner to see if he was okay. The fallen angel could see Joel was breathing slowly but was no longer awake, knowing how frail humans were compared to Digimon Devimon had to make the conclusion that Joel could be seriously hurt.

Devimon let loose a loud growl as he turned to the group of Digidestined, eyes blazing red and wings spread wide. The group and their Digimon prepared to battle a powerful champion but instead the fallen angel Digimon hissed and turned to his partner. Scooping his human ally in his elongated arms the Digidestined watched as the massive black Digimon flapped his wings once and took flight.

"TK, I think we need to talk." Matt said, glaring at his younger brother. But before he said anything he remembered he had something of a chip on his shoulder when he was younger.

Tai only shook his head, this is not what he had expected to happen on a quiet walk through the digital world.

Kari looked at her brother; "Do you think that kid will be alright?"

"It was only a bump on the head," Tai said, "He may wake up with a headache but he'll be fine."

"If his head is half as hard as yours then he won't have a headache." Matt joked, giving his trademark smirk.

Tai laughed, he had known Matt long enough to know when he was joking.

TK was looking at the ground, he couldn't believe how he had acted earlier. That kid may have been annoying but he didn't deserve to be attacked like that, even if he partner was a former enemy.

"Hey TK, what are you thinking?" Patamon asked, giving TK a concerned look as he landed on his partner's shoulder.

"Just thinking about what happened in hindsight Patamon." TK said, "Sorry I nearly got you involved in a fight."

Patamon smiled, "It's okay, nothing too bad happened."

---

Not far from the woods on a grassy hill Devimon set Joel down and reverted to his rookie form. Anger still clearly apparent on his round face, Demidevimon landed next to his partner and sat down.

"All this just because Joel got stuck with me as a partner. Not his fault, it's their fault for being jerks." The small virus type gritted his teeth, "If I could I'd-"

Before the small raven like Digimon could complete his sentence Joel sat up and rubbed his head. "What... happened? Where are we?"

Demidevimon held back a few tears of joy at seeing Joel was alright and perched on his head to examine Joel's injury. There was a little blood from a cut and a good sized lump but there didn't seem to be anything worse than that. "That kid in the bucket hat nailed you with a rock when your back was turned. I managed to fight off all their big bad Digimon and get you outta there."

Joel had known his partner long enough to know when he was lying but he knew that it didn't matter, it was Demidevimon's way of saying he was worried about him. But still the whole experience with that kid left Joel feeling emotionally drained.

"You know D, I just wish we could just be left alone." Joel sighed, "We never get any respect around other people..."

"Wow, you guys too huh?"

Joel looked over to see two humans and their Digimon partners. One was a girl about Joel's age who had long black hair that went down to her shoulders and was wearing a red t-shirt and blue jeans. Standing next to her was a Blackgatomon, the virus equivalent of the vaccine type Gatomon.

Her friend seemed to be a little younger than Joel, but seemed to be rather one the lanky side with blonde hair and brown eyes. Aside from his blue baseball cap, gray shirt, and blue jeans he had a brown back pack that seemed packed with food among other things. His Digimon's head could bee seen scarffing down a few sweets, Joel had never seen a Digimon like this. He had a small executioner's hood on with painted red and green eyes and large red claws.

The girl picked up her Blackgatomon and sat next to Joel on the grass. "Let's talk..."

---

To be continued

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Hope you enjoy! All future reviews will be posted here!


	2. Allies

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Revenge of the downtrodden

Chapter 2

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On a grassy hill in the digital world a digidestined named Joel sat next to his partner, Demidevimon while a preteenage girl was applying antiseptic ointment to where he had been struck with a rock by that kid in the bucket hat.

"So... you two are picked on by the others too?" Joel asked, wincing a little as the ointment stung when it was applied over the cut on his head.

The girl nodded. "I'm Sarah and I'm partnered with Blackgatomon, and Nick over there has a little hyperactive guy called Dracmon."

'Nick' waved hello as he held his back pack over his head as Dracmon was trying to reach for more sweets. The whole scene would have been comical if Joel did not feel another sting from the lump on his head as Sarah put a small bandage. That was going to be painful to pull off since it was in his hair. But Joel said nothing about it since these two were the first kids that were willingly talking to him in a long time. He needed the company.

Once Sarah was done with her poor attempt at first aid she backed away to put her first aid kit back in order, everything back in its proper holder before grabbing the backpack away from Nick and placing the kit inside. In those few seconds Dracmon would have climbed back inside the backpack but Nick grabbed him away and kept him in a head lock until Sarah was done.

"It's nice to meet you both, I guess..." Joel said, "So do you guys get shunned by all the other tamers?"

Sarah sighed and nodded, "Ever since Blackgatomon first digivolved to Ladydevimon the two of us have been ostracized by the rest of the digidestined. They have their reasons, but I don't really understand them."

"What reason is that?" Demidevimon asked, flicking his wings in curiosity.

"They often say it's because she's a virus type, I don't understand why that's a factor." Sarah said as she rolled her eyes. "I've seen plenty of kids who have virus types for partners. I guess they just don't like some digimon."

Joel muttered to himself, that's how it started with him when his Pagumon digivolved to Demidevimon. "What about you... Nick was it?"

"Yeah," Nick said, "Dracmon... has a way of rubbing people the wrong way and making it so a simple apology doesn't work."

"Care to explain that a little more?" Joel asked, not understanding just how that would work out.

"Well, one time we were both hungry and hanging around the city district. The next thing I know Dracmon has a plate of hot cakes." Nick sighed, he obviously didn't want to tell the tale. Dracmon however was drooling at the mention of hot cakes. "The two of us started eating some of them when seven Guardromon surrounded us and accused us of stealing. I tried to talk my way out of it but Dracmon started throwing the hot cakes at them and calling them rusty tin cans that should be recycled."

Joel winced, "Sounds like he has a big mouth."

"One that's only closed when he's sleeping or passed out from eating too much," Nick snorted as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pink pig plushie. "or playing with this."

With a cry of "Pigsie!" Dracmon suddenly leapt up and snatched the little toy away and began to play with the pig as if he was a five year old who was high on pixie sticks.

Blackgatomon couldn't help but sweatdrop at her 'friend's' behavior. She wanted to know what kind of horrible god would pair Nick with this hyperactive moron? Turning back to Sarah Blackgatomon pulled on her pant leg to get her attention.

"Sarah I think we should learn more about him..." The black cat suggested.

Taking the hint Joel did his best to seem friendly to these two other misfits. "I'm Joel and this is Demidevimon, we just had an encounter with some kid with a real attitude problem."

"From the lump on your head I can tell you did more than just exchange harsh language." Sarah said, knowing there was more to the story than that.

"Yeah, we started out chasing a Kuwagamon that had come out of the trees and we wanted to take it down. Next thing we know we run into a group of kids." Joel said, frowning at the memory of that kid with the bucket hat. "Me and D here were about to take our leave when one of them tries to start something with us. As much as I wanted to just smash his face in I walked away and I get hit from behind with... something."

"The rotten brat threw a rock at Joel when his back was turned." Demidevimon snorted, perching on his second place to sit; Joel's shoulder. "Next time I see them I'll show them what I think of them!"

Joel smiled and patted his friend's head, he was grateful to have such a great traveling companion. "The idea of banding together with you guys sounds great... but there's just three of us, humans and digimon pairs I mean. I've never been able to push D here past champion level."

Joel sighed and looked at his partner, "I know it's not common for tamers to get their partners to ultimate but I should."

Joel reached under his coat and pulled out a tag and yellow crest, the source of his feelings of ineptitude. Joel had the ability to push Demidevimon to his ultimate form but somehow never could...

"I guess I'm just a lousy partner." Joel yelped as Demidevimon's feet closed a little, poking him with D's large red talons. "Yeah, sorry I was getting a little depressed there."

Demidevimon shrugged in response to the confused looks of the others. "He gets like that sometimes."

"It's not that," Sarah said, "It's that you have one of those things too."

Sarah reached under her shirt and pulled out a tag with a dark green crest and showed it to Joel, Nick doing the same with his purple crest and tag. While this may have been an attempt to make Joel feel like he was like them it just mad him feel a little less special.

"I didn't know other people had these." Joel said, "I found it glowing in a cave by the beach. Me and D had to hide there from some uppity kids who didn't like our company."

"They said the original digidestined had them, some kids occasionally find them but they're pretty rare." Nick said, "They also say that they glow when their owner experiences strong emotions specific to the owner."

"Who's 'they?'" Dracmon blurted out, a wide fanged grin on his face as he held his pig close.

Nick coughed, "It doesn't matter Dracmon. What matters now is what direction we take with ourselves. We can either band together and give each other some kind of protection or continue on with the lone wolf strategy. Personally I'm tired of getting chased all over the digital world like I'm some kind of leper."

"I can't say our time solo has been very enjoyable." Sarah said, holding Blackgatomon on her lap. It was clear that the black cat didn't like being coddled like this but when Sarah started scratching behind her ear she quickly changed her tune. "I just want to enjoy the digital world like any other human. That's not much to ask."

Joel agreed, he wanted to be proud of his partner was and not have to hide him in the digital world not just in the real world. His champion form of Devimon didn't get him a lot of friends and it seemed as if these two were in the exact same position he as in. Who better to have as friends than people who understood you than those who suffered as you have?

"Well, I'm all for working together." Nick said, "I'd enjoy the company, I mean if it meant having someone that wasn't asking me a lot of nonsensical questions."

"Hey Nick what's a hypotenuse?" Dracmon asked in a pleading tone.

"You see what I live with." Nick whined as he hung his head.

"What kind of emotions?" Joel asked, wanting to know how he could get Demidevimon to his ultimate form. "How do you know what one is the one activates the crest?"

"I've heard that the symbol on the crest is supposed to mean something but I can't figure out what any of ours mean." Nick said, "I admit my information comes mostly from rumors and snide remarks from other tamers but the information is consistent so it could be true."

Joel walked over to Blackgatomon and showed her his crest, "You wouldn't happen to know what this thing means do you?"

"What do I look like a digi-encyclopedia?" The black cat snorted.

Sarah sighed, "None of our digimon seem to know what they mean... and I've tried just about everything I can to get my crest to light up. But thankfully we don't have to rely on them to get our partners strong."

Joel blinked in confusion, "Wait, you know of another way to get your digimon to her ultimate level."

"Ultimate? We can get our digimon to Mega level if we're really desperate." Sarah said with a superior look on her face, that same look was mirrored on her partner.

"Really? Cool!" Joel cried in a rare show of excitement, "What do you do?"

Nick pulled out his digivice off his belt and showed it to Joel and Demidevimon, making sure to keep an eye on Dracmon because last time he got hold of it he tried to eat it. Thankfully Dracmon was preoccupied with his stuffed pig to care about the device.

The first thing noticed was that Nick's digivice was totally black, the casing around the screen seemed to resemble an open mouth filled with sharp teeth, the buttons were triangle shaped not circular, and the small screen somehow seemed to be blacker than black, as if it was absorbing all the light around it.

"So... you painted your digivice black and modded it?" Joel asked, remembering how some of the kids in school liked to brag how they modified their game consoles.

"WE didn't." Sarah said, "A weird digimon appeared to me, called himself named Daemon opened a portal to some weird dark beach and told me if I wanted to keep myself strong all I'd have to do is put my digivice in the waters. When I did it changed into this."

Joel shrugged, aside from looking much cooler than the normal teal and blue version everyone else had he hadn't heard any reason to change his own digivice or how it allowed his new friends to digivolve to mega level.

"So... how does the magic work?" Joel asked, starting to become skeptical of their claims with all this explanation.

Becoming irritated by Joel's impatience with their story Sarah set Blackgatomon down and fixed a cold glare on Joel before continuing. "After that he told me how to change other digivices into ones like mine and I found myself back in the digital world."

Nick nodded as he kept Dracmon from getting into his backpack once again. For an undead digimon he was surprisingly quick, which made making snacks and packing for trips to the digital world a pain since he could snatch things away from the counter and devour them before Nick could even notice they were gone.

"Sarah's the one that used her digivice to change mine." The young man showed his own black digivice, a perfect replica of Sarah's own. "Now Dracmon can go from rookie to mega. Not a lot of people are willing to go up against a Piedmon... not that we've actually had anyone actually try to attack us lately."

"So does that mean you can change my digivice into one like yours?" Joel asked.

"Sure, it's not hard really." Sarah shrugged, extending her hand to take Joel's digivice. "Watch this."

Sarah held the black digivice to Joel's, screen to screen and pressed a button on hers. The two hand held machines shook and crackled, looking as though there was some sort of battle between the little devices. But it soon seemed as if Joel's devices was surrendering as it darkened and changed into a black digivice like Sarah's.

"All done." Sarah said pointedly as she handed Joel back his digivice.

Joel looked at his new black digivice, it didn't really feel any different which disappointed him a little. "So what's different? Aside from the new look I mean."

"Just hold it to your chest and it will take a portion of your own energy and send it to your digimon." Nick said, "A word of warning, while it doesn't really hurt, you WILL suddenly feel very run down but the perk is that he can skip his champion and ultimate stages if you want."

Joel grinned, with this new power no one would ever look down on him, his partner, or his new friends again.

---

To be continued...

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roxas24 - Of course I am, it just takes a while to get good chapters together.

neversleeps17 - Glad you like it, so few people on FF enjoy fics that go out on a limb and check out the stuff that's trying to be original. 


	3. Rumors

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Revenge of the downtrodden

Chapter 3

---

Weeks passed and things settled into a interesting routine. Once the three tamers were released from their separate schools they would meet in an isolated section of the western desert in the digital world to practice using their energy draining digivices in peace as well as giving their digimon time to adjust to their higher digivolution forms and master their attacks.

At first Joel was shocked how huge Demidevimon's mega form was, VenomMyotismon stood nearly three times his height and his appearance seemed somehow even more intimidating than his champion form of Devimon. But Joel quickly found that skipping champion and ultimate forms was extremely taxing... the first time he got his partner to VenomMyotismon he keeled over and didn't wake up for a solid hour.

A few more tries later Joel found it was more comfortable to stop at ultimate, where Demidevimon became Myotismon. It still made the red haired boy tired but at least he wouldn't be passing out on the battlefield. 'D' as Joel still preferred to call his partner regardless of his form, seemed to prefer being Myotismon than VenomMyotismon, claiming that he felt famished every moment he was a mega.

Despite finding this back door to the mega level Joel did not spend all his time focusing on himself and D. They watched as Nick rested and Piedmon used his Trump Swords to destroy a pile of rocks. But despite being the fully digivolved form of Dracmon he was by no means more mature. Even as a mega he continued to play with his stuffed pig, ask lots of questions, and steal food from Nick's backpack. Only now he could perform what could only be described as magic with his Clown Trick power.

Sarah however was far more attuned to this power than either of the boys as they discovered. While the power still made her very tired she was still able to stagger about while Blackgatomon achieved her mega form; the very beautiful but deadly Lilithmon.

Nick was worried their continued training may be discovered and create a very negative response from the other tamers. He explained that if they all found out that we had banded together they could panic and come looking for a fight by the dozen. Even with their new power it was unlikely they could win a fight against those odds.

Regardless the group decided to continue working on a way to properly defend themselves against possible violent tamers. Even so, the three were quickly becoming close friends even though it had only been a week since they met.

But despite keeping to themselves and doing their best to remain undiscovered, secrets are nearly impossible to keep in the digital world.

---

Life for TK and his friends had gone on pretty much as normal as things can be since his encounter with Devimon and his tamer. He had received a long winded lecture from Matt and after a short time of feeling bad for how he had acted all was quickly forgotten.

The younger group of digidestined, namely Ken, Yolei, TK, Kairi, Cody, and Davis was visiting the digital world intent on checking up on some of their old friend Andromon in western city. The city had been having trouble from a massive Numemon migration to the sewer system and they were going to try to get the slug digimon to move to another place where they could do no damage.

"So You really think this needs all of us?" Davis groaned, "They're just Numemon, I'm sure Cody would've been enough for this little trip."

Cody smiled, liking the idea that Davis thought he was capable enough to handle the situation even though Cody had no interest in starting a fight with the Numemon.

"Come on Davis admit it," Yolei said, "it's nice to move around the digital world with Veemon when we don't have to save two different worlds from some embodiment of evil."

Davis shrugged. "I suppose, but at least we don't have to worry about being attacked every time we go to the digital world."

Ahead on the path a Gotsumon and a Betamon were whispering about something.

"Hey guys, anything new?" Veemon asked heartily, being his normal friendly self.

"Rumor has it there's some really powerful evil digimon tearing up the place in the desert to the west," Gotsumon said, "and their holding some kids hostage."

The children looked at each other and sighed... it was always something.

"Looks like we're making a detour." Ken sighed, trying to look irritated when in fact he was a little happy to know things were going to be a little more exciting than recently.

"hey, remember the old saying about rumors." Kari said, "Trust half of what you see and none of what you hear."

"You got that out of a fortune cookie." Gatomon said.

Kari smiled sheepishly, "Guilty... but I think it makes a point here."

"Well, Andromon is still expecting us so I think we should split up." Cody said, "Yolei, you and me will go to the city while the rest of you check out this rumor."

Yolei frowned, he wanted to spend more time with Ken but this was a little more important than her relationship with Ken... almost. After all it was probably just a big misunderstanding, the Gotsumon in this area were known gossipers who had a way of making mountains out of mole hills.

"Alright, we'll check it out. See you later at your store for something to eat!" Davis said with a wave as he

"That's cool, but you're buying then!" Yolei shouted back, knowing that would burn Davis's skinny butt. She knew Davis never had a lot of cash so he'd have end up with an empty wallet.

The two groups separated and went their different paths. It was unlikely that there actually were evil digimon with hostages but it would be irresponsible not to check it out.

---

Back at the desert Joel and Nick were both laying down, snacking on in the shade of a large boulder trying to regain their strength from using their dark digivices. Sarah was sitting next to them, while not as tired she was still out of breath and a little dizzy from helping her partner to ultimate level.

Around the children zipped three viral ultimate level digimon as they practiced fighting against each other, over the weeks they had been getting stronger each day they fought and with each infusion of their partner's energy.

Myotismon and Ladydevimon were now locked fist in fist each trying to over power the other, only to be blind sided by a tackle from Matadormon who then ran over to Nick and tried to get into his backpack again. Nick however threw the plush pig like a football which drove the ultimate level away from their supplies.

"I'm surprised how different he looks, yet he still acts like Dracmon." Nick said, "I wonder if his mega from would still care about that pig."

Joel shrugged but said nothing, he wanted to conserve rest more than anything.

"Ever think of just putting our snacks in a strong box with a padlock?" Sarah asked matter-of-factly, "He shouldn't be able to get into one of those easily."

"Where the heck am I going to get a strong box?" Nick asked, a little put off by Sarah's superior attitude.

"The internet. Duh." Sarah said obviously, enjoying how easily Nick had walked into that zinger.

Nick grumbled and kept silent, not wanting to argue.

"Do you think our digimon are strong enough?" Joel asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Sarah blinked, not understanding what Joel was getting at.

"Do you think we can defend ourselves against anyone with our power?" Joel asked, "I really don't want to have to go back to a solo routine."

Sarah smiled, she had to agree with Joel. Despite their occasional arguments she had grown attached to the two boys, back home in Canada it was hard to find friends ever since everyone and their brother got a partner she and Blackgatomon had become social outcasts at school. Nick was the first friend she had made in a long time, and Joel was pretty cool too. She wasn't about to give them up and the power she now had would ensure that.

Nick sighed, "Hope this can continue, I hate living in Natal with Dracmon. The kids in Brazil can be pretty rough when an undead digimon eats their soccer ball."

"You're from Brazil? Cool." Joel said, trying to sound like that was impressive. He wanted to lift Nick's spirits as much as he could. "I just live in the northeast of the USA... lots of cold rainy days. At least Canada has lots of space and fresh air."

"Ha! I live in the city, no space or fresh air for me." Sarah said, "What about you Joel?"

"I live on a farm in the country, I do a lot of chores and there's no much to do compared to the city." Joel said, "But as long as I have Demidevimon I have someone to help keep me from going nuts."

"So you have a boring home town... I'm kind of jealous." Sarah said leaning against the rock. "The city's so loud and busy... sometimes I feel stressed out."

"Hey in the country it's no picnic either, I have to chop wood, feed our animals, and clean up after them." Joel stuck out his tongue. "You girls may like horses but you'd hate to shoe a poo encrusted hoof. I can't imagine shoeing one that's barely been broken."

Nick sighed, "The grass is always greener... I'm sure if you both changed places for a week you'd be begging to go back."

Both Joel and Sarah thought about what Nick said and muttered their affirmatives if only to keep him from going on about the subject. The trio sat back and drank in the tranquility of the digital world, or rather what tranquility there was with their partners loudly scrapping on the other side of the boulder. The sky was arcing towards the west but there was still plenty of blue left in the sky and despite it not being the sky of the real world the trio found it none the less real and stunningly beautiful.

The digimon, final tired and hungry from their training walked around to the children and sat down next to their respective partners. Nick kept an eye on Matadormon while he dispensed bags of snacks and sodas to the digimon and some sodas for himself and the other two humans in their group. The newly formed team enjoyed a quiet moment as everyone regained their strength. Eventually friendly conversation broke out and they began to enjoy themselves, each glad that they all now had others to confide in.

As time ticked by Myotismon began to feel more at ease as the sun edged closer to the horizon, he disliked the sunlight of both the digital world and the real world and soon he would be shrouded by lovely night.

"Nick, do you have any more soda?" Myotismon asked plainly, eyeing the Brazilian like he was a sandwich. He would never eat the little human, he just loved to terrorize him once in a while.

"Uh, no Joel has a last one." Nick said, growing a little pale, hoping that the vampire would stop looking at him with those unnerving ice blue eyes of his.

"Joel give me your soda." Myotismon said, "I need more energy."

"No way, I only had one out of all the ones everyone had." Joel snorted, "I saw you guzzle down three and a whole bag of chips, for a noble looking digimon you eat like a pig."

Myotismon smirked and grabbed Joel by the shoulders as he bared his fangs, "Maybe I should just make you my snack."

"Uh, yeah... you can have my soda buddy." Joel squeaked as he weakly offered up the warmed soda.

Grinning mischievously and loving how easily it was to scare his partner in his form Myotismon grabbed Joel in a hug, draping him with his cape as he pretended like he was going to feed on him. Myotismon only smiled as Joel screamed in terror while Sarah wisely caught on and took the soda away from Joel before he spilled it and handed it to Matadormon who had been eyeing the can the entire time.

-  
Not far away the digidestined had been spying the desert with a few pairs of binoculars looking for what the Gotsumon had told them about. After a half hour of searching the sands Davis was already complaining, as per usual.

"Anyone see anything, because I'm tired of wasting time on this little flight of fancy." He said, "I forgot that Yolei had all the refreshments in her bag."

Kari chuckled, "Next time you should pack some for yourself."

"I think I see something." Ken said, pointing to a lone boulder that sat not far from their position. "I can see some kids and what looks like some digimon, not sure what ones though."

"Let me see." TK said, taking the binoculars from Ken. "Well, one of them I've never seen before but I'd never forget the other two."

"Who's that TK?" Patamon asked, flying close to his partner to hear better. Of course with ears that size it shouldn't be hard to hear anything.  
"Ladydevimon and Myotismon," TK said with a fair amount of venom in his tone. "They don't seem to be acting bad though..."

"How's that?" Gatomon asked, "Last time we met those two they were bad to the bone. I know that first hand having had to deal with both of them."

"They just seem to be talking with the kids and- ah! Myotismon just grabbed one of them!"

"You mean he's attacking one of the kids?" Davis exclaimed, "Come on then! We gotta help them!"

---

"Are you done buddy or are you trying to crush my lungs?" Joel coughed, surprised how strong his partner had become in such a short time.

Myotismon released his partner and smirked, "My apologies Joel, I simply wanted some fun at your expense."

"So I gathered." Joel said, despite being picked on he couldn't stay mad at his best friend.

Sarah smiled as she looked up at Ladydevimon and smiled, "You look stronger, do you feel stronger?"

The leather covered demon fanged a smile and patted her arm, "I feel like I could take on anything the digital world could throw at me."

"I'm glad to hear that," Nick said, "because we have company headed our way."

The trio looked over to see a small group of kids with digimon partners charging their position. Four kids to be exact, but be it four or fourteen the trio was expecting a fight but they had not expected it to come at such a tender moment. The trio got to their feet while their digimon prepared for a fight.

"Okay, don't worry! Just leave these guys to us!" Davis shouted getting ready to armor digivolve Veemon when these supposedly evil digimon made their move.

"Arrogant little flea isn't he Sarah?" Ladydevimon said, ironically with a fair amount of arrogance in her own voice.

Sarah only nodded in response, she did not want to take her eyes off these new comers.

Joel's eyes were locked on one of the newcomers in particular, the sandy haired kid with the bucket hat. He still remembered that day in the woods, and the anger he felt on that day boiled back to the surface anew.

"So we meet again bucket head." Joel snarled through gritted teeth. "Time for some pay back for that rock you hit me with."

---

To be continued...

---

AN: Not meaning to be mean to Cody or Yolei fans, just felt the entire time would have been too much for the trio to handle... and it would be easier to write.

XDARCtheElite - Perhaps they have seen the original digidestined (first and second gens), but it's unlikely that they would know them by name. I'd imagine that the kids would want to keep to themselves at least part of the time.

ToxicSugarNinja - Yay another reviewer! I agree, dark digimon need tamers... and respect... mafia respect. =D


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